Memoirs: an oxymoron

Memoirs are known to tell a person’s story from their unique perspective, this is part of what makes them intriguing. When writing a memoir, authors create an oxymoron by combining their personal experiences with broader situations that readers might have an easier time relating to and understanding. Treavor Noah’s Born a Crime is a prime example of this phenomenon. He writes about many things in his childhood that differentiated himself from his society. While there are infinite examples of how Noah was different from the people who surrounded him in South Africa, two examples that I thought were the most profound were his mother’s strength and determination to endure apartheid and how she purposefully chose to give him a meaningless name. 

In South African culture, your name speaks volumes to who you are as a person, but Noah’s mother did not want to make his name his destiny. By giving him a neutral name, she was defying the stereotypes of their culture, a subtle way to stand out against apartheid. 

Additionally, Noah recounts his first interaction with an exile when he was seventeen. He recalls thinking that he did not know that it was even an option for him and his mother to have avoided apartheid and left South Africa like other colored people in similar situations had done. When he confronted his mother about this, he remembers her stubbornly saying “This is my country. Why should I leave?” (Noah 31) This is just one of the many ways that his mother purposefully, and stubbornly, separated them from apartheids rules and stereotypes. Other examples include when they tried to have cats as pets, or even when she decided to have a mixed child since she knew the consequences and the struggle that she would have to endure. 

Similarly, Frederick Douglass’ situation as a slave parallels Noah’s situation in South Africa. Douglass has differentiated himself from other slaves by being able to read and write and he deals with the same conflict of leaving home. If he had fled to Canada, he would not have been able to speak to the people of the north as an avid abolitionist and gain their support. 

These purposefully defiant protests are what make Noah and Douglass similar. While these experiences were unique to each author, readers can understand the underlying themes of being different and separated from society because at some point in our lives we have all had an experience that triggered the same emotions.